Fresh local food goal of new Farms to Friends program
Everyone deserves to be healthy. That’s the starting point for Farms to Friends, a new program this summer bringing local organic produce to low income families and seniors in the West Kootenays. Food security is one of the pillars of West Kootenay EcoSociety’s work, and the idea and funding for Farms to Friends came together quickly for a project that everyone involved is calling a win-win. It…
Hottest Week of the Year fundraiser highlights impacts of climate change
A little hot weather after a wet start to summer is a welcome relief. With so much upheaval this year, a return to normal summer temperatures and the opportunity to get outside is good for our physical health and our mental well being. The last week in July is typically the hottest week of the year here in the Kootenays. It’s also the potential turning point from healthy summer activity to the…
We’ll be back! (We’re not actually leaving.)
Health and safety come first. We’re sorry to have to leave, but due to COVID-19, we can’t bring people together to collaborate and accomplish amazing things in person, so we’re closing our Nelson and Trail offices for now. To be clear, we’re still working remotely, we’re just closing our physical office spaces because we can’t use them for the foreseeable future. We’re closing our…
Rainwater Harvesting Part 2: Our First 2,000 Litres of Rainwater—Captured!
Rainwater harvesting has always been part of our permaculture homestead plan. But we set it aside while we concentrated on establishing the house and gardens and tending to our farm animals. The project became a priority with the devastating drought and wildfire seasons of 2017 and 2018. That experience, coupled with long-term climate change trends, motivated us to act now. Here’s a brief account…
Why we’re investing in Rainwater Harvesting: Part 1
The drought and wildfires of 2018 really drove it home for us: We were watering our gardens with propane. This was directly opposed to our dream a decade earlier. That’s when we sold our gracious century-old home in Regina and bought a 5-acre parcel of land in West Kootenay. Our plan: To develop a solar-powered permaculture homestead, leaving the land more abundantly productive and resilient…
Solidarity with BLM, justice & climate action
We’re working for people. We want people to have clean air, land and water, feel safe, feel loved and have healthy and happy homes. This is what social justice and environmental justice means. In Canada, the US and across the world, Indigenous people, black people and people of colour experience disproportionate violence, and it needs to stop. Everyone deserves to feel safe, no one deserves to…
June is Membership Drive month
Remember when we used to be able to sit close to each other? This photo is of our volunteer Maya, at the 2019 EcoSociety Membership drive. So much has changed this year, and yet we need to work together now more than ever. Your EcoSociety Membership means more to us than ever before. Thanks to our members like you, we have been able to adapt our programs so we can continue to build…
Not another Jumbo!
You may have heard that there’s a proposal for an all-season luxury resort called Zincton in the Goat Mountain range between New Denver and Kaslo. While the proposal considers many more environmentally friendly approaches than a typical development, it will host 1,750 people a day at the resort in sensitive grizzly bear, caribou and wolverine habitat, threaten access to pristine wilderness for…
Expert Speaker Series
You're invited to EcoSociety's community expert speaker series during the COVID pandemic. Bring your lunch and learn with us. We will be hosting two webinars a week, every Tuesday and Wednesday. Each webinar will be recorded and sent to those who RSVP to the event, so if you can't make it but want to watch after, still RSVP. The public have been asked to stay at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.…
New report calls for immediate action on old growth forests
My name is Rachel Holt, and I’m an ecologist living in Nelson. For the last 20 years, I have worked primarily in British Columbia, bringing science and technical analysis to land use issues, including work on the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, multiple land use planning processes, and work on habitat protection for species such as boreal caribou. One theme that has run through almost all of…